SVS VQI Launches Carotid Care Quality Champion Program

September 5, 2024—The Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Quality Initiative (SVS VQI) clinical registry announced the launch of its Carotid Care Quality Champion recognition program.

The program honors health care organizations across the United States that are dedicated to improving the safety and effectiveness of vascular care through participation in the SVS VQI’s carotid artery stenting (CAS) and carotid endarterectomy registries.

The press release noted that select facilities—listed here—have been recognized as “Carotid Care Quality Champions.” These organizations engage the SVS VQI infrastructure to monitor the quality of care for their vascular patients and help them comply with the latest societal and governmental guidelines, including the change in CAS coverage reflected in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recent national coverage decision, NCD 20.7, which was implemented on May 13, 2024.

As part of the NCD 20.7 reimbursement modifications, CMS requires centers to establish a quality monitoring program and maintain institutional and physician standards. Registry participation provides a robust and user-friendly approach to CMS compliance, noted the SVS press release.

SVS VQI stated that its CAS registry is the gold standard for developing a carotid quality assurance program. Registry participation enables centers to ensure the safety of their patients and adhere to the CMS coverage decision.

Jens Eldrup-Jorgensen, MD, who is the SVS Patient Safety Organization Medical Director, commented in the SVS press release, “We are proud to launch the Carotid Care Quality Champion Program to honor organizations across the country that are demonstrating their commitment to exceptional patient care by maintaining a robust quality program. By harnessing the power of data with benchmarked reports from over 900 centers, these centers have access to the best resources available for quality assurance and focused quality improvement efforts.”

The society stated that since the SVS VQI’s inception, clinical data gathered from participating centers has dramatically impacted patient care, leading to scientific discoveries that have changed how care is delivered. Participating centers include academic medical centers, teaching hospitals, community hospitals, and office-based labs.

As outlined in the SVS press release, VQI participation offers centers the ability to do the following:

• Track provider and center performance and compare to national benchmarks.
• Identify areas for quality improvement, including patient outcomes and length of stay.
• Participate in a robust quality improvement program, with access to quality improvement toolkits, quality charters, webinars, and one-on-one mentoring for members.
• Network with other participating centers to review outcomes data, foster collaboration, and spark further clinical innovation.

The Fivos Pathways platform, a secure, cloud-based data collection and analysis solution, powers SVS VQI registries. More information is available online at https://www.vqi.org.